Obama holds White House screening of Oscar-snubbed film "Selma"

A man carries popcorn before a screening of the movie "Selma" at the Selma Walton Theatre in Selma, Alabama, January 9, 2015. REUTERS/Jim Young

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The civil rights movie “Selma” may not have gotten a lot of Oscar love, but President Barack Obama was giving it a lot of attention on Friday.

The president was bringing in Oprah Winfrey, Common, David Oyelowo, Tim Roth and other cast members for a screening of the film in the White House family theater.

Another featured guest was Georgia Democratic Representative John Lewis, who was beaten by Alabama state troopers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma when he and Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights activists were marching to Montgomery in March 1965.

Some movie critics were surprised that “Selma” netted only two Oscar nominations, for best picture and best song.